The present invention relates generally to a closure for a preferably sterile pharmaceutical container, wherein the closure has a prefabricated closure body, which has a cup-shaped construction having a base and a wall, wherein the closure body has, in the base of its cup shape, at least one pierceable opening, and wherein an elastically pliant sealing element is arranged on this closure body in the region of the base of its cup shape, such that the at least one pierceable opening is closed by the sealing element and a part of the sealing element is accessible from the outside in the use position of the closure.
Closures are known, for example, from DE 38 35 720 A1, wherein the closures described there are manufactured such that, initially a closure body is produced in the form of a cap, and the elastically pliant sealing element is injection molded into the cap in a further production step in the same mold or a part of this mold. These closures have proven themselves in practice.
It has been shown that such prior art closures are exposed to strong deformation forces in wide areas in the course of further processing, especially during assembly on the pharmaceutical container, which can be a bottle, for example, and during the subsequent heat treatment for sterilization, the autoclaving process, wherein these strong deformation forces can negatively affect a reliable retention of the sealing element and possibly its original biasing. Therefore, up until now, a post-inspection of the completely assembled closure and/or an increased expense for the connection of the sealing element to the closure body have been necessary.
For example, in DE 38 35 720 A1 it is provided that the sealing element is injection molded into the closure body, wherein a large surface area connection region between the sealing element and closure body is produced and the pharmaceutical bottle closed by the closure has, at its bottle opening, a bottle cover connected integrally to the pharmaceutical bottle, wherein, in the unused state, the sealing element forms a sealing contact on the bottle cover and is at least partially supported by this. However, the production of such an arrangement requires a complicated mold.